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Chocolate Sunday – Passover Birthday Cake!

I was planning to write a blog post about my easy Passover chocolate birthday cake, including the recipe, but I realized it’s already online. Phew! More time for me to get busy with Passover preparations.

Here’s a link to the article I wrote in 2009 for The Canadian Jewish News: “Chocolate Passover birthday cake is easy to make.” It includes the recipe.

I’m adding a more recent picture, because the cake looks better garnished with chocolate strawberries than it does plain. This year, I’m thinking of filling it with marmalade instead of red jam, and dipping orange sections in chocolate instead of strawberries. We’ll see.

Obviously, my photo editing skills can use some upgrading. There were a few spots where the glaze didn’t cover the cake smoothly, and I tried to cover those up in the picture. But, whenever I make the cake, everyone seems to like it!

One of the reasons I love this recipe is that the cake (actually a big brownie) is made with oil, not margarine. I can’t bring myself to buy Passover margarine; I think it’s too unhealthy. I’m not surprised that it’s #2 on nutritionist Aviva Allen’s Passover dirty dozen list.

It’s a challenge to buy healthier oils for Passover too. I prefer the harder-to-find oil that is kosher for Sephardim, even though my background is Ashkenazi, because I refuse to buy unhealthy cottonseed oil too. Sigh.

Olive oil is another option, but not always preferred for baking. But even without margarine and cottonseed oil, there are a lot of delicious desserts you can bake for Passover.